Africans Say Nobel Peace Prize Bestowment on PM Abiy Achievement of Continent

Ena December 11/2019 The conferral of the Nobel Peace Prize upon Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed demonstrates that there are “tremendous improvements in the continent,” according to some fellow Africans.

ECA staff member Soteri Gatera told ENA that he is very happy about it as it's much personal achievement as it is a national achievement for Ethiopia.  

He said, “I think it is something for all us in Africa to be proud of. As African continent we don’t normally win Nobel Prize …. It’s something that may happen once in ten years. So, we are happy for him, we are happy for Ethiopian. It is an achievement for the content.”

According to Gatera, “The fact that an Ethiopian prime minister won a Nobel Prize for peace  manifests that Africa is not the same Africa we would see. Now there are tremendous improvements in the continent.”

South Africa's Embassy Counselor Mogale Thabo said on his part “I think the awarding of  Nobel Prize to Prime Minister Abiy shows that Ethiopia and Africa are moving in the right direction.”

Thabo added, “We look up to him. He is our role model that nothing is impossible.”  

Furthermore, he stated that the premier has played decisive role in bringing peace and stability in Horn of Africa during his chairperson of IGAD. “That's what Africa needs.”

“We can only have economic development in a stable and peaceful environment, without peace investors and businesses will never invest,” he noted.

He added that if the environment is peaceful then “you get the opportunity of investment, and opportunity for investment means job opportunity for our young.”

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed formally received the 2019 Nobel Prize award in Oslo yesterday.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded him for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation and for his key role to end the long-running military stalemate with neighboring Eritrea.

In his acceptance speech the premier said, “I believe that peace is an affair of the heart. Peace is a labor of love. .. The Horn of Africa is today a region of strategic significance... When our love for humanity outgrows our appreciation of human vanity, then the world will know peace.”